Antonio Banderas celebrated the 25th anniversary of “The Mask of Zorro” in a recent interview with Yahoo Entertainment. The Martin Campbell-directed adventure movie was produced by Steven Spielberg‘s Amblin Entertainment and grossed $250 million at the worldwide box office in 1998.
Spielberg was on hand during the film’s production — Banderas said the Oscar-winning director correctly warned him about the future of practical vs. CGI filmmaking.
“Steven Spielberg said to me once when we were shooting, ‘This is probably going to be one of the last Westerns shot in the way the Westerns were shot in the old days, with real scenes with real horses, where everything is real, [real] sword fighting, no CGI,'” Banderas remembered. “Everything was [practical].”
“And he said, ‘But things are going to change. they’re going to change and they’re gonna change fast. And so you should be proud of this movie,’” Banderas added. “And I am, probably even more now than at the time that I was doing it. I don’t know if I was absolutely conscious when I was doing ‘Zorro’ that it was going to have an impact. The impact that it’s had, and especially after 25 years… It was a very beautiful adventure movie with a lot of ingredients that made it shine in a very beautiful way. I have nothing but good memories.”
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Banderas and his co-star Catherine Zeta Jones reprised their roles in 2005 sequel “The Legend of Zorro,” but the film was far less successful at the box office. Still, Banderas told Yahoo that people have been “approaching” him with “different ideas” for a third Zorro movie.
“Obviously if I do another movie now, I would play the [mentor] character that Anthony Hopkins did in the first version,” Banderas said. “I [would] be the character that passes the torch to the new Zorro, which would be great, just to do so. But you know, if it comes, great. If it doesn’t, you know, the other two are there forever.”
“The Mask of Zorro” is now available to stream on MGM+ or Prime Video with the MGM+ add-on.
